Bahrain Testing: Pierre Gasly tops leaderboard on Day One as Ferrari continue to impress
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Pierre Gasly in the AT03
The second phase of testing at Bahrain has officially started and even concluded Day One of testing at the Bahrain International Circuit right in the heart of the vast Sakhir desert. The three day period of testing ahead of the first Grand Prix of the season will continue till March 12.
While Scuderia Ferrari had been exceptionally consistent and displayed vigour in the first phase of testing at Barcelona, they managed to continue that on Day One of testing at Bahrain with Charles Leclerc topping the timesheet of the morning session. however, overall from the entire session, Leclerc placed third on the table.
What is to note is that Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was the reason behind bringing iut the first red flag of Day One of testing, but the Canadian driver managed to finish fourth overall, keeping Williams’ newly recruited driver Alex Albon right behind him at P5. What really caught everyone’s attention during testing was a duel between Alpine’s Fernando Alonso and Stroll. Evidence showed Alonso and Stroll battling it out in the acceleration zone coming out of the penultimate lap, before Stroll ends up taking his time executing a move into Turn 1. It went all the way to Turn 4 when Alonso eased out.
More Developments seen in Day One of testing at Bahrain
After teammate Zhou Guanyu was momentarily halted by a pit lane stop in the morning, Valtteri Bottas took P7 for Alfa Romeo in the evening with more than 50 laps to his name. Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel managed to get 39 laps in the morning. He also outdid Mercedes’ newly recruited driver Sebastian Vettel.
Mercedes were received at the testing with quite a few shocks with their completely reworked W13 challenger. Lewis Hamilton who’d be looking forward to settling some debts with Verstappen this season, following his last lop loss to the Dutch driver last season for the championship, finished 11th today. Between the two Mercedes driver on the leaderboard was Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez who brought out the second red flag of the day.
Mclaren’s Daniel Ricciardo was supposed to start testing on Thursday, but he was unable to do so due to medical reasons. He is still yet to complete a lap in Bahrain testing, alongside Max Verstappen, Nicholas Latifi, Yuki Tsunoda, Kevin Magnussen, and Mick Schumacher. Pierre Gasly who finished first overall today showed his driving prowess with AlphaTauri’s new livery for the season, the AT03. Even though, just like every other team on the grid, AlphaTauri has also had to deal with the major issue of porpoising, their car stilll shows scope for more and more development which could prove to be fruitful this season.
| Position | Name of the Driver | Team | Fastest Lap | Tyres Used | Number of Laps Completed |
| 1 | Pierre Gasly | AlphaTauri | 1m33.902s | C5 | 103 laps |
| 2 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1m34.359s | C3 | 52 laps |
| 3 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1m34.531s | C3 | 64 laps |
| 4 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | 1m34.736s | C4 | 50 laps |
| 5 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1m35.070s | C4 | 104 laps |
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Rishika Saha
(445 Articles Published)